Alpine Nelson IPA Clone

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I will attempt the clone Verbatim some time next week from hopville

http://hopville.com/recipe/408239

, and will follow up with tasting notes, OG, FG, etc. Does anyone know if the dry hopping schedule is a typo? or does it mean 11 days of dry hops, followed, by another 11days? any feedback/input would be awesome, and would be willing to ship out bottles to anyone that has attempted this recipe and gives me some feedback /input. i can get alpine ipas fresh and fairly easy so i will be sure to have a side by side tasting of this homebrew. I dont mean to brag but been doing all grain batched for ~5years, and have medaled at several big time homebrew comps in So Cal, in other words this aint no rookie attempting the Nelson Clone

 

That's what I was thinking of keeping it at 45 ibus, Lagunitas IPA which is one of the best shelf year round ipas out there is 45 ibus. Thanks for all the input fellas will follow up with info once I brew this within the next week or two.

 

Thanks good to know, I got enough hops for two test batches will try the rahr malt for batch 2

 

Finally got a chance to brew the Nelson clone, I hit the target gravity of 1.066
Will ferment half of the batch with American ale yeast, the other half with San Francisco lager yeast, will post final gravities as well as tasting notes

 

after 10 days of fermentation US ale batch FG 1.011, i think ill give the yeast a few more days to work, even though the airlock has stopped bubbling. Notes of citrus, (think of citrus gatorade), slight peppery spicy aroma, stone fruit, with slight hint of grape, clean light mouthfeel, has the hop bittering of an APA, but without the chewy caramel bready notes. Color a slight hazy orange hue, it looks pretty similar in color to nelson, and will be closer after cold crashing this bitch. I think i will start the dry hopping over the weekend.

SF Lager version: Gravity 10days after ferm 1.016
Big time aroma of guava, a slight bit more bitter, ( likely due to this being the second drain from keggle, more trub and hops), tropical fruit pineapple, candied guava, papaya sweetness, this bitch is murky, i willl likely let this go another week before dry hopping since lager strains tend to work a bit slower.

well ill keep you guys posted, after the dry hopping, unless the gravities change before dry hopping.
cheers!

 

I just happened to have an extra vial of SF yeast, but was inspired by SD Brewers Guild 2009 beer Callifornia Uncommon, which was a double ipa fermented with SF lager yeast that alpine brewed just for the festival, it was a collaboration beer which each of the SD brewery contributed an ingredient towards the beer awesome concept awesome beer

 

US Ale: racked to secondary and added dry hops 4/2
SF Lager: took a gravity 1.010, the SF lager yeast took a bit longer to reduce the gravity.
the guava /ester profile seems to have mellowed. great clarity, which will only improve after lagering.
clean lager crispness in the after taste, a bit thinner on the mouthfeel compared to the ale, definetely brings out the malt bill, slight hint of citrus. lets see what dry hops does to this bitch!

 

First pint of the ale version
Served on draft into a bullet shaped tasting glass.
Aroma: crushed white grapes, mango, juicy tropical fruits, then picks up a high grade dank aroma, citrus fruits
Apearance: vibrant orange hue, orange cloudy appearance ( first pour, will clear up after sitting in the keg a few days), i dont have a bottle of Nelson on hand, but mind looks a deeper orange color, persistent creamy head
Flavor: medium hop bitterness ( ~40 ibus is important), smooth hoppy taste without getting the full bitterness bite as most ipas, maltiness is muted, but the rye portion of the grain bill brings out a nice spicy bite to the bittering hops, mangos, citrus, white grapes, a hint of pineapple.
Mouthfeel: smooth, medium body, moderate carbonation, a bit slick in mouthfeel but should improve after spending time in the keg.
Overall: I dont have a bottle of Nelson on hand to compare, but although not the exact same beer this recipe will give you an amazing homebrew. I felt mine had more of a citrus component ( think of mango and citrus gatorade, which is one of my favorite non alcoholic drinks) than Alpine Nelson, the appearance is more cloudy and a more vibrant orange color, the distinct Nelson aroma is definetly present in the beer, i will enter this in a local homebrew comp and will post feedback scores,. I will also be posting the review of the lager version which is still dry hopping, and if i can get to Alpine before i drink this batch, i will do a full compare and contrast analysis with Alpine Nelson.
Cheers!